


Through the Land of Gods

by Blapblaps



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Additional Characters to be added, Elemental AU, Gods and Monsters, M/M, Mages, Magic AU, Magic-Users, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, i have a vague idea of where this is going
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 13:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20292541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blapblaps/pseuds/Blapblaps
Summary: The boy’s brown eyes shine just as much as the rest of him, and the mage senses a millennia of sunshine behind them. His skin shimmers with the same gold color of the sand that fills his own mouth, and he glistens with the beauty of the surrounding desert. A sheer gossamer fabric covers his body, it glows like stars in the early evening.The boy of the sun radiates a light that he could never hope to be, and it makes him weep.The small deity smiles despite the tears, and he’s too bright to look away from. His eyes shine with sympathy as he says, “You’re looking for me.”Or: A gods and monsters AU that I decided to write on a whim





	Through the Land of Gods

**Author's Note:**

> I watched my roommate play Journey on the PS4 and I thought to myself, "These graphics are amazing; maybe I can make an AU out of this."

He walks. 

Wanders through endless planes of dunes, whipped into rippled waves by the harsh wind, golden sand glittering beneath his feet. The sun is suspended high in the blinding sky, forcing him to focus on the waves of heat below. The warmth is everywhere; fluttering between the fabric of his cloak, coating his tongue, and making his eyes water. This light, this radiation is unfamiliar, like stepping out into the day after years upon years of night. In a way, he has. 

This land knows nothing of the cold. It’s never seen the darkness he resides in, the pitch black chill that lives within himself even more. The land is as foreign to him as he is to it. He hasn’t seen anyone in days, living in the cycle of morning and evening for who knows how long. This place, however, is anything but lifeless. A constant breath flows through the air, whispering the landscape into new shapes and howling ethereal music into his ears.

He passes fallen cities and broken civilizations, crumbled under the weight of time. These landmarks are his only evidence of further pursuit other than his slowly rising thirst. There were people here once, though one can only guess who they were. Ancient citizens, forgotten hierarchies, or maybe other mages that had been turned to dust, all buried beneath years of sand. This place, after ages of descent and abandonment, remains forever untouched.

Because this land is alive.

Days pass; mornings give way to scorching days, and the sun dips below the horizon to dissolve into nights. The moon shifts, forever gazing at him in its calming light, and time slips away like a lingering touch. Time has never been important to him, much like the stories he’s heard about this place. Legends, word of mouth, and minutes; they’ve always been temporary. He wouldn’t know to keep track of his years on earth if he hadn’t spent them diligently studying his own craft.

He walks.

It could be weeks before he begins to stumble, tripping occasionally on obstacles he can no longer see. The light begins to deteriorate the darkness in his eyes, and slowly, everything looks white. The skin on his fingers and the bottoms of his feet begin to crack under the burden of his body and the heat. The blood on his lips dries, cracks, and reopens to bleed freshly again. Just a little farther, he distantly knows, but he began his journey without knowing what he was searching for.

He heard stories of this land and the deity that floods light into every crevice on earth. He never gave any weight to these stories, even if he thought to believe in them. In his many- but not as many as other’s- years of living, he’s learned that nothing is truly impossible. He’s heard tales of the living sun, searing the bodies of those it deems hopeless and unworthy under it’s merciful gaze. His thoughts dim with each day, but one remains: the prayer that the sun takes pity on him and burns away his remaining sin.

He walks.

Before the impending blindness and a thirst that holds every one of his rattling breaths can finally lower him to the ground, he sees it. A beacon of height in the distance, bringing promise of a closeness to the sun. It feels another hundred years away, but he continues with determination. It could be a mirage, nothing but a figment of his starved mind, but in this thriving wasteland, there’s nowhere else to turn. Not once did he think of turning back; too much of a coward to face the mistake he made on his own. He’s not looking for guidance or forgiveness, and he’d spent too long in search of answers. He seeks permanent salvation.

The wheel turns and there remains no difference between day and night that he can see. He can no longer sweat, so it’s midday when he pants his way through the sand. It’s night when he can breathe through his nose, and the wind cools his broken skin instead of smoldering him further.

He hasn’t stopped once, and the summit draws closer. 

Waking dreams, images of the past and his abandoned future flash in his aching mind as he steps forward. He walks to erase the memories of faces, names, and the lessons marked into his skin, but he knows they are forever. His only hope of starting again lies in his feet, and he notices that they hit something.

His vision is lost, only seeing vague shapes in the constant blinding light, and he assumes that he’s stopped by another pillar. He stretches out his trembling hands, attempting to feel his way around it to push onward. His fingers brush only against the warm air, and he falls forward.

Stairs?

The sandstone is rough against his hands and his knees ache from the sudden impact. He tentatively crawls upward, expecting a sudden drop into the harsh sand, and he’d breathe a sigh of relief if he could. This is it: the ascent.

The sun inches downward as he climbs on his hands and knees, no longer trusting himself not to fall, and the anticipation of release pushes him faster than he thought was possible. A few steps shatter underneath him, but he’s not afraid. He uses his last drops of strength and willpower to rise into the boiling sky, knowing if he were to fall from this height, that it would be good enough.

His hand smacks roughly against a dusty flat surface, and he looks up. He can’t see, but he’s made it; he’s reached the top, and can finally stare unseeing into the very sun that took his vision. He finally sheds his cloak, likely bleached by the light and kneels before the giant star. His arms go limp, back arched against the sky and he feels the heat roast the etchings learned into his skin. 

He sacrifices the last of his magic to open up his arms, and he’d scream, he’d cry and beg for mercy if he could, but he can’t. So he silently prays, knowing no spells to summon the deity he searches for, but hopes with his last dream that it can hear him. To hold him in its blistering arms and burn him alive.

The wind sings in his ears, he hears the sand below rising and falling with the force of it, and allows the sun to see through him. To take a look into the darkest parts of his heart, the curses he’s carved into his soul and judge the mistake he’s made. 

There is nothing. Only blindness, thirst, and impending death by neglect. He lowers his arms.

He falls.

“Hello?”

A gentle caress on his face; a hand, fingers? Slowly treading a blazing path across his cheek and carding through his frail hair. It’s distant, faraway and heavenly. Everything fries around him. The air, the stone underneath him and the setting sun. The wind is cooling, so it must be later in the day’s cycle. But the sensation on his skin is simply warm, there’s no white-hot pain to this touch.

“Hey, open your eyes.”

He does, his heavy eyelids protesting the effort. He still can’t see, and this light must be forever. His body hasn’t burst into dust yet, then. A shame. 

“Oh, you can’t see. Should’ve guessed, after travelling so far from home.”

The voice is higher, that of a young person, and even the words are full of light and an optimism that he’s long since let go of. Hands on both of his shoulders now, lifting his weak body into its previous kneeling position. He must be lighter after his journey and starvation, but it’s still a feat to lift someone so weighted by magic. 

“Close your eyes and stay still, okay?”

Palms on his cheeks, cupping his dry skin and a pressure against both of his eyes. Salt water floods behind his eyelids and falls down his cheeks in a wave of relief, and he begins to cry with the sheer pleasure of being able to. He didn’t come here to cry, though, and he’s never been known for it. Slowly, as though he’s afraid of what he’ll find in front of him, he opens his eyes.

And he sees the sun.

Light personified; this is who he came to see. He hadn’t let himself imagine what the mythical sun deity would look like, but now it seems outrageous to expect anything else. He’s short, leaning over his pathetic form, tiny even, with flaming red hair that must light up every inch of the heavens. In his delirium, he wants to reach out a useless hand and touch the mass of feathery hair. The boy’s brown eyes shine just as much as the rest of him, and the mage senses a millennia of sunshine behind them. His skin shimmers with the same gold color of the sand that fills his own mouth, and he glistens with the beauty of the surrounding desert. A sheer gossamer fabric covers his body, it glows like stars in the early evening. 

The boy of the sun radiates a light that he could never hope to be, and it makes him weep.

The small deity smiles despite the tears, and he’s too bright to look away from. His eyes shine with sympathy as he says, “You’re looking for me.”

He can’t speak, his throat and lungs long since dehydrated, and the mage nods. 

He tilts his head to the side, a look of curiosity washing over his gentle features. “Why? You don’t know light magic, and it’s rare that mages take this path to see me.”

He can only look on as tears fall in place of his guilty words. He has nothing to offer this effervescent being other than his regret. The boy seems to understand.

“Here.” He says softly, and drags his thumb from the top of the mages lips to the bottom. A warm, tingling substance touches his skin, and his tongue darts out to catch it before he can understand why. 

“Speak.”

A liquid flare rushes down his throat, coating his stomach and lungs, and he’s filled with a brilliant heat. It doesn’t hurt; it smolders into his veins and ignites every one of his cells back to life. He takes his first real breath in weeks, and his body feels like it’s expanding. Months of recovery and water flash through him in a single instant, and he’s suddenly alive. 

He’s had many healing potions in his past, but this could only be a gift from above. It tastes like the boy sounds; like bubbling laughter and the absence of pain. He’s delirious and it’s euphoric. He knows that he can speak now, but all he wants to say is  _ more,  _ to beg and plead for what he knows he doesn’t deserve. He’s no longer parched but a new thirst takes hold of him.

“I…” He breathes out, but he doesn’t know what to say. In a single moment he doesn’t want to spill any of the confessions that he came here to reveal. He has to repent, to save himself from his guilt, but how can he do so in front of something so beautiful?

He knows he can’t hide any longer, though; he’d given up on any chance of turning back before he started his travels. He looked for the sun, and now that he found it, he must speak the truth.

“I...I’ve done something terrible.”

The boy sits in front of him, crosses his legs and his eyes glow like he expects a story. “Like what?”

The mage wants to look away, but something tells him that for as long as he has left, he’ll never be able to. “I’ve unleashed something ancient, and it’s going to destroy everything. I thought…” His voice breaks.  _ I thought I was right, that I could control it. _ “But I was wrong, and I can’t fix it.”

The beam of light before him leans closer, his eyes widening. “Oh…” He says like he understands the internal conflict, and maybe he does without having to ask.

“So why did you come to me?” He sounds worried, but if he can read his thoughts, why is he asking? 

The force of his mistake begins to break him again, and he feels its magnitude pressing down on his shoulders. He finally tears his eyes away.  _ I need you to take me away from this place, this life. Burn me up until I’m nothing but ash so I can’t hurt anyone else. _

“What’s your name?”

He looks up again, and finally notices that the sun is beginning to set. The boy’s light shimmers softly on its own, and it’s as though he’s mirroring the desert colored dusk. The side that reflects the oncoming night sparkles pink and purple on his skin, and behind him kindles an orange that sparks the gold specks dotting his frame. The mage almost forgets to speak.

“Shouldn’t...you already know that?”

He shrugs, and the sun in his eyes never falters. “I could find out myself, but I’d rather you tell me on your own. The day here is ending anyway, and soon it’ll be harder to do that.”

So he doesn’t know what’s already been done, and that means it’s already begun. He’s running out of time. “I’m here to repent. I came to ask the sun to destroy me, because I can’t be forgiven and I can’t change what I’ve done.”

He looks taken aback by this. “Destroy you? But you’re young. It’s not your time yet.”

The mage is feels a rising impatience; why doesn’t he understand? “That doesn’t matter! The world is in danger and it’s my fault!” He leans forward, looking the sun god directly in his sparkling eyes. “Please,  _ please _ destroy me, turn me into dust now, because I can’t fix it.”

The small figure furrows his brows and straightens up in his position. “That’s stupid! If you have to fix it, you can, and you  _ must.  _ I know what’s coming, and if it’s your fault, there’s nothing you can do but make it right! Destroying you would be letting you off easy.”

He’s almost shocked at his sudden persistence, even though he knows the words are true. He’s a fallen magic user, and he sought redemption because he’s a coward; terrified of what he released and the damage he’s done. The fate of his actions is irreversible, though, and it’s all he can do to try to escape. He didn’t expect a god to be so blunt about his mistakes.

“You have to listen, there’s nothing anyone can do. Better mages than me have tried, and they were all destroyed. I know I’m weak, but I came all this way…” He begins to tremble with the building pressure of it all, and slowly, the boy’s eyes soften.

He raises the mage’s chin to look at him once more, and he sees the fire of determination in the boy’s eyes. He’s completely captivated, frozen by his transcendence and his very own woes. “I see your guilt, and the dark magic you practice. I understand what happened, but you  _ have _ to help change it.” He looks behind him, and his skin is now only lit by his own golden energy. “I’m running out of time, but I have to know, okay?”

Before he can ask what he means, the boy leans forward to press their foreheads together. They take one deep, shared breath, and the deity seems to glow with his knowledge. His entire essence emits an ever-present warmth, and it fills his heart with a comfort that he doesn’t deserve. 

He leans back an inch, and before the magic user can protest, the sun god speaks with an unwavering resolution. “Something is coming. I have to talk to the others, but it’s not your time yet. You can fix this, I promise.”

He suddenly knows that time is running short, but he can’t say another word. This isn’t what he came here for; he won’t be destroyed, but he doesn’t want to leave.

The radiant boy smiles and whispers, “I’ll see you soon, Kageyama.” Before his lips are captured by the blazing sun.

A flash of burning white light.

And nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I have like...glimpses of where I'd take this, but the idea came to me in a wave and I just had to write it down. Let me know over on my tumblr @blapblaps if you're interested in seeing where this could go! Thanks for reading :)


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